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Voters expect campaigns to embody the virtues the candidates pledge to bring to office. A candidate who says he's a "fighter" can't say it in a singsong voice; one who promises to restore the dignity of the working man can't be getting $400 haircuts. And one who promises to bring sober, mature leadership to the White House and take national security seriously can't campaign like a daytrader and select someone that inexperienced for his ticket. It's not just that Palin was a bad choice but that she was a bad choice that simultaneously undercut the central premise of McCain's candidacy and its primary critique of his opponent.

That said, Dan Quayle didn't hurt the first President Bush electorally, and in fact his polling numbers were even worse than Palin's are now. But Dan Quayle had two advantages that Sarah Palin does not: there was neither a 24-hour news cycle nor YouTube to keep the focus on his failings, and thankfully for him the 1988-89 cast of Saturday Night Live featured no one who could serve as his doppelganger. (Instead, they went with a chipper eight-year old in a suit.)

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